Keeping it simple

This is my 1,000th post in the forums so I thought I'd contribute something positive to the community.

Keeping a personal productivity system as simple as you can make it will pay dividends in terms of productivity. There is a temptation to use every field and every bell and whistle in an app. It doesn't help.

Discuss.

p.s. I posted a very long message about my progress with personal productivity system but decided to keep it simple and edited it down to this!

Agreed. I have been thinking about this a lot lately with my system. Unfortunately there is no GTD app that will make you productive without setting time aside to think. Sorry. You can't set your contexts on auto pilot and your tech will handle it. People keep looking at the tool even that David Allen says in EVERY interview that the tool isn't that big of a deal. This is why reading the book is so important, and not just some blog entries. You need to figure out what works for you, but not trying to fill up the standard contexts. I think one of the best posts in the forums was from Lance a couple of years ago when he linked to a DA article in Wired. Highly recommend reading this post and bookmarking it. http://www.toodledo.com/forums/5/3797/-20391/getting-things-web-done.html

PeterW, I agree wholeheartedly. I started off using quite a lot of fields here on TD but I found it slowed down adding a task and maintaining the lists. I gradually reviewed what I got from each field and found there were other ways of doing most things.

I also use the Star & Repeat fields although don't really consider them data fields. And the Due Date and Note fields are only used when needed so typically most tasks only need a name, a context and a tag.

Folders:
- Next
- Waiting for
- Someday

Contexts:
- @anywhere
- @work
- @home
- @errands

Tags:
- business
- personal

I use the Tag field solely to give me a simple way to switch between my two areas of focus. I used to have contexts for @phone and @online but combined them into @anywhere because my iPhone is with me all the time.

BTW I'm using Appigo's Todo Online system now. I switched from Toodledo a month or two ago. I was already using their iPhone app to sync with Toodledo and found that their project handling is more robust and their interface simpler and easier to use.

Todo Online (thankfully) has a proper Inbox (better than using Toodledo's 'No Folder') and it's displayed in the main menu navigation. While this seems a small thing, it's so important in terms of GTD to have an always visible inbox with count indicator. Todo Online also has a 'Focus' list similar to Toodledo's Hotlist. I spend much of my 'doing' time working from this list.

That's interesting. I use the same fields in almost the same way. I'm not happy about including tags but I use it mainly for organising my Out & About context. Some items I can buy only in ASDA, some only in Tesco, some in both. Tags allow me to express that nicely.

Oh, I also have a zzz tag for my braindead list.

I don't use folders. I used to use that for areas of responsibility but then I realised that my projects had folders and my actions had contexts. I combined them and annotated contexts like @ Calls @ and folders like | Work |. This puts contexts above areas of responsibility, - Inbox - above that and ~ Someday/Maybe ~ right at the bottom to keep it all organised.

Keeping a personal productivity system as simple as you can make it will pay dividends in terms of productivity.

Or, simpler is more productive. ;)

Jake (the developer of Toodledo) has used a "throw in everything but the kitchen sink" approach to attract many types of users, but he does not use GTD to track his own tasks. Features like "Next Action" and "Someday" in Status have a superficial resemblance to GTD concepts, but, in practice, they interfere with the process, as do additional fields like Goal and Length.

My approach is similar to that of PeterW and cabbage but I use Start Date to filter out future tasks that can't really become "overdue". i.e. something that I will do in the future, but not necessarily on a specific date. If it is something like a licence or membership renewal, then I add a Due Date.

BTW, last night I grabbed my copy of Getting Things Done and I reviewed some of the key concepts. Worth reading again. All of it.

Best way to keep things simple is to understand that GTD is a methodology and way of thinking. David Allen always talks about it being a mental martial art. When you take that approach you can adjust your system by getting rid of the necessary. It is crucial to the longevity of your system and mental clarity. It is waaaaay to easy to get wrapped up on how to use the tool after you have chosen "the one"

One mental switch that has made my life much easier is that you don't need to use every available field for each task. Many tasks that are in projects that aren't next actions have nothing identified within them (context, status, etc.). I figure that once I finish what is next I will identify that. For a long time when I would drop in a task I would force myself to add it to a folder, status, and context. It can stressful to have to do that for each one if it isn't the next action. I use Toodledo to keep checklists in certain folders too. There I might use the start date and due date for ticklers or items like that. I brew Kombucha tea at home and use the start date for when I start a new batch so I can remember. I don't use start dates for my GTD tasks though. An easy way to ignore fields you don't use is to move the "note" icon to the left right next to the checkbox. Now I don't have to scan to the right much in order to classify tasks or add notes.

For a long time when I would drop in a task I would force myself to add it to a folder, status, and context. It can stressful to have to do that for each one if it isn't the next action.

I was doing the same and also found it stressful & annoying.

One reason I did it was because Toodledo has no Inbox. I mostly worked out of the Main view (using the Hotlist) so these new tasks without a folder/context/tag weren't visible unless I remembered to switch to the Folder view periodically and look in 'No Folder'. It was easy to overlook this and it wasn't good to constantly have to remind myself about it.

I tried using the Search tab where I could define my own Hotlist and Inbox and thereby have what I needed in one place, but there are no task counts on the search tab so I still had to click on the inbox to see if anything was in it. While this doesn't seem like a big deal, it felt like a constant roadblock that prevented me from feeling that I was in control.

Thankfully Todo Online solves this with a permanently visible inbox with a task count. I can now just mind dump into it whenever I want (or email to it) and know that it won't be hidden so I can get to it when I'm ready.

I mostly worked out of the Main view (using the Hotlist) so these new tasks without a folder/context/tag weren't visible unless I remembered to switch to the Folder view periodically and look in 'No Folder'. It was easy to overlook this and it wasn't good to constantly have to remind myself about it.

Two things:
1. How did these "tasks without folder/context/tag" get into Toodledo? You use Todo on your iPhone, right? You can set defaults in that app and in Toodledo. And, why is it "so important in terms of GTD to have an always visible inbox with count indicator"?

2. You are no longer using Toodledo. Why are you still posting here and promoting another website?This post has been hidden because of negative votes. Click to reveal

Two things:
1. How did these "tasks without folder/context/tag" get into Toodledo? You use Todo on your iPhone, right? You can set defaults in that app and in Toodledo.

I was talking about when I was using Toodledo, which was until recently. I prefer to not set defaults for new tasks - I want to process them later from the Inbox. I either enter them myself with just a task name or I email them in.

And, why is it "so important in terms of GTD to have an always visible inbox with count indicator"?

I probably should have said "important for me in terms of GTD". I don't want to lose visibility of what I need to get done, so having a visual reminder that I don't have to dig for is important for me.

2. You are no longer using Toodledo. Why are you still posting here and promoting another website?

I'm still a current Toodledo subscriber, and still have data on the website, so I think it's ok for me to continue participating here. Appigo doesn't have user forums at present and I enjoy discussion about GTD. I'm not promoting another website - I'm talking about what I am using but that doesn't equate with 'promotion'.